Teacher training must promote communication skills

Simon Marcus Gower, Executive Principal, High/Scope Indonesia, Jakarta

"I don't like my math teacher."

"Why not?"

"He's always angry with us. If we ask him a question he gets angry."

"Why does he get angry?"

"He says we should be able to understand when he explains but we don't. He says we are stupid if we always have to ask questions."

The above brief interview represents a very sad predicament. The young girl attending a Jakarta primary school was reflecting on her problems with learning mathematics. It is probably fair to say that a majority of primary school kids do not really enjoy their math lessons and even experience problems with them. But it seems this child's problems are being compounded by a rather dismissive and uncommunicative teacher.

These kinds of problems are recurring in many Indonesian schools. The parents of one primary school girl reported that her math teacher would simply explain a problem once, then explain a second time and expect the children to understand. Their daughter, who had not understood these two identical explanations, was then promptly and rather painfully told that she would have to repeat the work as homework or face the prospect of having to attend remedial classes.

In short the teacher was not really teaching. Instead there was presentation but there was no follow-up communication and attention to help the students learn and understand. There was the blind assumption, if not demand, that the school pupils follow and comprehend. Any failure to comprehend was put down as the students' fault rather than the teacher's.

Teachers, though, may often be at fault and they need to be flexible and honest enough to be aware of this. Their own communications with students, rather than clarifying, can have the affect of compounding the problem.

To achieve some potential for success as a teacher, there are certain fundamental requirements for educators. Key among these are a sound knowledge-base, that is knowing the subject; a repertoire of teaching methods that help the learners learn; personal qualities that allow the learners to have faith and confidence in their teacher; a sense of fairness and democracy to communicate with all students; and a love of learning that the learners may see as an example to them.

Each one of the above list is very important and, no doubt, other items could be added to the list, but underlying and supporting each and every fundamental of teaching is the core need for communication skills. Regrettably, however, it is easy to observe teachers in classrooms failing to communicate well.

Take, for example, the notion of teachers being fair and democratic. In one school students complained that their physics teacher was often uncommunicative. As it turned out, the students with whom he would communicate were those students that were achieving the best grades for physics. Those students that were showing less ability in his subject were effectively being pushed aside.

It is, of course, an easy trap to fall into. Communicating with those that are more able and skilled is an easier option than struggling with the less able and less conversant. Nevertheless, it is incumbent upon a good and effective teacher to reach out to as many, if not all, of the students as possible.

Communication is at the center of all our learning activities. The little child first entering school is likely to be filled with questions and the good teacher encourages and responds to these questions. It is perhaps one of the saddest things about educational experiences that questioning and participation becomes less and less enthusiastic as children progress through their school years.

For example -- a teacher of a kindergarten class that asks for a volunteer or a question is likely to be overwhelmed with hands shooting up from eager, willing class members. Meantime, a high school teacher asking a question or looking for a volunteer is much more likely to have to elicit answers and pick out volunteers.

Life in school may, then, be seen as reducing participation willingness and slowly reducing communicative involvement. Some teachers in high schools even seem to want to nullify or stifle students' desire to communicate. Highly motivated and inquisitive students have fallen victim to reprimands and complaints from teachers that they are disruptive.

But teachers, to be truly effective, have to enjoy communication. They have to love involvement with people. In essence they have to be able to recognize that knowledge and communication have a hugely beneficial emancipating effect. Teachers have to love the opportunity that teaching gives them to communicate with people and, equally, the opportunity that they get to be communicated to.

They should, then, learn and be trained in communication in all its forms -- for example -- being skilled communicators both orally and in writing. This means that they should develop skills to be able to talk and write to an audience, but also to listen and read. Potentially then they may become successful communicators.

This further sets up a requirement that teachers are able to use their language well and fully. Competence in manipulating the language is vital because language essentially equals communication and communication equals knowledge and the potential to spread understanding.

Under these circumstances it seems odd that poor communicators go on to become teachers but, of course, their success as teachers may remain in doubt. In various Indonesian schools teachers have been encountered that admit that they "don't really like talking in front of a class" or "don't really know how to write".

These are sad admissions because they suggest shortfalls in essential communicative skills for teachers. Where there is a lack of communication ability, there is the danger of inability to share learning and understanding. Critically, teachers need to be facilitators of the abilities to learn and grow. Some have suggested that education's purpose is to "replace empty mindedness with open-mindedness". If this high ideal is to be achieved, then it is vital that teachers possess distinct powers of communication; to speak to those minds and encourage them toward openness.

In practically every field of human endeavor and employment it has been recognized that any degree of advancement cannot really be achieved if a person does not have a love for the work. This is probably even more true for education than any other field of employment.

As people are being prepared for the great challenges and responsibilities of being a teacher it is very important that they be trained and monitored for their abilities to communicate. Without skills in communication, teachers will only be mediocre at best. With communicative competence teachers can open the minds of their students and continue to grow themselves as life- long lovers of learning.